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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Buying Coffee In The Land Of Tea

Editorial Note: Since I started whereisdarrennow my focus has been on recording what I've learned along the way. I knew that, if I didn't force myself to sit down and think about what I've seen, I'd forget many of the details. In this way, lots of the stories have tended to be "explanations" and "take aways" of what I've seen and/or the experiences I had. I've received feedback that people are enjoying the stories but that they also want to read more about my "daily life" experiences. To me, these things haven't really been "worthy" of sharing but, in response, I'll start posting more stories like this. So, here's another story in the "daily life" category. Enjoy!

About a block from where I'm living there's a small coffee-roasting shop that I've been buying my coffee from. It's a mom-and-pop-style business that's owned by a guy who looks like he's in his late 40s or early 50s. A couple of times that I've gone in an older couple who are probably the owner's parents are manning the shop. Of course it's possible that it's their shop and the son is working for them but I'm not sure because they don't speak English and I still can't handle that level of conversation in Japanese.

The shop buys green coffee and roasts it in super-small batches on their roasting machine. I love the smell when I walk by the shop each day. You can see their roaster and the burlap sacks of green coffee:

At any given time, they have about six or eight coffee varieties. I've tried a bunch so far and my favorite has been the Brazilian medium roast. The shop also sells creamers, sugar, cocoa, and other stuff that goes with the coffee.

I've been impressed by their concern for quality and the artisan approach they take when they roast the coffee. The coffee is great and, to think, it's in the land where tea is still king. Anyway, just another post under "scenes from my daily life". Now for a fresh pot of coffee!

English is everywhere. You can try to escape it but you really can't. Japan is very open to foreign things, especially language. Some of my favorites that I've seen are signs in Japanese characters for "Open", "Tenant" (as in For Rent), and "Post" (for mail).